Teamsters, Coca-Cola Dispute Who's Paying For Health Insurance

Both the Teamsters and Coca-Colaagree that health insurance costs $14,898 a year per employee at the East Hartford bottling plant.

But the two sides don't agree how that cost is distributed, making it hard to see how they can reach a new contract where health insurance costs are a major sticking point.

About 350 union members have been striking for two weeks after about seven months of negoiating.

Teamsters, who work as drivers, in soda bottling operations and in the warehouse, make about $20 an hour, and their health insurance costs another $7.16 an hour.

In the last contract, Teamsters spokesman Chris Roos said, the company and the Teamsters agreed how much of the increase in compensation would go toward wages and how much toward medical and dental insurance.

But Coca-Cola is insisting that the company pays the whole cost of health insurance and that union members must now pick up part of the expense.

Roos said that the previous contract called for a precise division of the compensation increase: In year one, 25 cents went to wages, 35 cents went to health insurance. The next year, 25 cents went to wages, 50 cents went to health insurance, the third year, 50 cents went to health insurance, none to wages.

The fourth year, 25 cents went to wages, 40 cents to health insurance. The fifth year, 25 cents went to wages, and 40 cents to insurance. And in the most recent year, 50 cents went to wages, none went to health insurance.

The union said it chose to split contributions that way instead of taking higher wages and then having payroll deductions for insurance premiums because the company preferred it. That way, Coca-Cola saves money on overtime because workers have a lower wage base. Also, companies get tax benefits for spending on health care that they don't get for paying wages.

The union said of the $14,898 a year the health insurance costs, workers' share of the costs are $5,512, or more than 36 percent, and that's in line with employee cost sharing around the country.

"There's no doubt about it, it's a Cadillac — a Rolls-Royce — of a health plan," Roos said. "But we pay 36 percent of it."

But the company says it's wrong to interpret those splits in compensation laid out in the last contract as "the forgoing of wage increases," and Toney Anaya, a Coca-Cola spokesman, disputes the union's description of it as "an employee contribution towards the escalating cost of health care."

No new negotiating sessions have been scheduled since the strike began. The next meeting is on June 12.

The Teamsters union had also asked the National Labor Relations Board to insert itself into the contract dispute, arguing that the company is not revealing enough information about its new alternate distribution plans, which union members fear could eliminate jobs. Coca-Cola has said no jobs will be lost as a result of the changes.

Roos said under the new arrangements, some grocery chains could pick up their own Coca-Cola products instead of having them delivered.

The NLRB investigated the union's claim, and John Cotter, deputy regional director of the National Labor Relations Board in Hartford, said that although "we believe there is a potential for merit finding," the agency is not issuing a complaint.

Instead, the agency is encouraging Coca-Cola and the Teamsters to reach a resolution.

"They keep saying no one will lose their jobs, but they won't guarantee no one will lose their jobs," Roos said.